Key Takeaways from UK’s Blue/White Scrimmage

College Basketball Scrimmages are not about the final scores that contribute to who wins and who loses. It’s more imperative that a team comes together at the start of the season to work on their skills while witnessing team and player development. The Scoreboard becomes more important when there is a different opponent other than your current teammate in front of you. The Kentucky Wildcats Blue/White Scrimmage consisted of turnovers, late defensive rotations, shot clock violations, and the lack of communication from the team as a whole. That’s not a concern this early in the year, because Calipari’s teams are known for lessen their mistakes as the season goes along. What’s most important is the fans of the Big Blue nation were able to see the growth and potential out of some of its top prospects to get a gauge of the team before the 2014-2015 season officially starts. Below are some Key Take-aways from Kentucky’s Blue/White Scrimmage.

THE TWO BLUE PLATOON LINE-UPS REVEALED

1. Andrew Harrison 1. Tyler Ulius

2. Aaron Harrison 2. Devin Booker

3. Trey Lyles 3. Alex Poythress

4. Willie Cauley-Stein 4. Marcus Lee

5. Karl Anthony-Towns Jr. 5. Dakari Johnson

6. Derek Willis 6. Dominique Hawkins

WILLIE CAULEY-STEIN ANKLE IS 100% HEALTHY

Although Willie Cauley-Stein is not one of the nine McDonalds All-American’s listed on this roster, there’s no doubt he’s still very instrumental to this teams success. Last year WCS hurt his ankle in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, which forced him to miss the 3 remaining games UK played in the tournament, plus the 6 games from this year’s summer tour trip to the Bahamas in August. Willie showed no signs of his ankle not being healthy, by his assertiveness on defense and offense, and by the way he attacked, defended and ran the floor. One play in particular, was when he stole the ball at mid-court from one of UK’S guards, then finished at the other end of the court with a reverse slam dunk.

TEAM ANALYSISThe Blue Team shot Free-Throws better than the white team, but the White Team moves the ball better than the Blue Team, which is a more ground and pound team.The 3 Ball was off tonight. Will this team be able to shoot the ball well enough from behind the arch remains to be seen. Both teams shot in the 20’s from the 3 point line.It’s was hard to get easy baskets in this scrimmage. Every shot was challenged at the rim. It will be hard to score on this team. Dakari Johnson and Karl Anthony Towns made it extremely hard on each other with their physical play throughout the scrimmage.This is Andrew Harrison’s team. He’s able to get into the lane easily and hit the floater or pull up for the 15 footer. The demeanor Andrew carried on the court all night showed that he’s another extension of Coach Calipari out on the floor.Tyler Ulius is unselfish and can hit the wide open jumpshots. Dakari runs the floor well, tries to grab every rebound, plus finishes with two hands at the rim. Alex Poythress is a freak athlete when he puts his mind to it.The team already has great team chemistry, and they all seem to get along with one another, but the communication needs to get better, because they’re getting Tyler Ulius’s block knocked off by not calling out the screens.What is Marcus Lee’s Role on this team? Will this team Press or Play Zone?The team is in better shape than they were last season. Dakari, Andrew, and Aaron all appear to be in tremendous shape.BEST END OF GAME FREE THROW PLATOON SQUAD

1. Andrew Harrison

2. Aaron Harrison

3. Tyler Ulius

4. Trey Lyles

5. Karl Anthony-Towns Jr.

CALIPARI ON SOME THINGS HE SAW DURING THE SCRIMMAGE:

“We got a long way to go. I mean I’ll be honest with you, were so long and big you get no easy baskets, we don’t against each other. Our young kids got some growing up to do. We got to get the vets, Alex with more of a swagger, Aaron got to compete at a higher level. We’re going to be fine though”